LOS ANGELES - Even in the short history of California's parent-trigger law, what Watts parents did was novel: Instead of trying to force sweeping changes at Weigand Avenue Elementary School, they just wanted one change: Principal Irma Cobian gone.

Academically, things are grim at the school. Weigand received a 688 Academic Performance Index score in 2012, down 1 point from the year before. API scores are assembled from multiple statewide test scores, and run from 200 to 1,000, with 800 as the benchmark set by the state.

The school is overwhelmingly Latino and poor. Of the 254 students whose test scores were included in the 2012 API score, 220 of them were Latino, 179 of them were "English learners" whose family speaks another language at home and all of them were categorized as socioeconomically disadvantaged by the state.

Cobian was brought in four years ago, with a mandate to improve the failing school.

But things weren't happening fast enough for some parents, and they blamed Cobian's leadership:

"Oh, I'm going to cry," mother Gloria Aroche said through a translator. "My son was special ed and we knew that right away, but it wasn't until second grade that we could get an evaluation."

Her son has since moved onto another school, but a younger child will be attending first grade there this year.

Two years ago, mother Llury Garcia said, parents tried to get the LAUSD to change things, "but no one would listen to us."

But it was difficult for parents to get in touch with Cobian, according to Garcia and Aroche, and when they did, they didn't feel like she took their concerns seriously.

"I know what it's like to be in a classroom and feel like you don't know the answers to any of the questions," said Garcia, who has a third-grader at Weigand and who dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. "They told me I'd never make anything of myself. ... I believed that."

So Garcia and other parents reached out to Parent Revolution, the non-profit group that got the parent-trigger law passed in 2010 and which has helped organize all the trigger efforts to date, to see if they could use the law to change things.

"They came in two years ago and asked if they could survey," Cobian said. "They were out there for a year and couldn't get any motion or rally. "? We didn't take it seriously."

Things started to get serious in March of this year, she said, with parents protesting outside the school. Cobian wanted L.A. Unified to get involved and hold informational meetings refuting the claims of the petition gatherers.

"We started notifying the district and trying to get support, because they'd been here and seen what we were doing."

As it did earlier in Adelanto, the parent-trigger battle in Watts got ugly.

Cobian's car was vandalized and "bitch, get out, bitch," written on it. Students told her they had been offered money to vandalize it.

"They've thrown eggs at our houses, they've scratched my van, they've pushed me," Garcia said. "They've said things to my daughter, which I think is not fair, because it's not her movement."

During the height of the petition-gathering, Aroche said, school officials didn't want parent union members volunteering on campus.

Other parents were hostile as well.

"Parents slammed doors in our faces, said we were crazy, said Parent Revolution was liars," Aroche said through a translator.

Her home was egged, she said, and her car's tires punctured.

Garcia said the Weigand Parents Union never misled anyone.

"We said we wanted strong leadership, evaluations, support for our teachers," she said. "We never lied to them. I gave them my phone number to ask questions -- no one ever called me; I guess they agreed with me."

The district finally agreed to hold a parent information meeting after spring break, Cobian said.

"That was a major, major tactical mistake," she said. Parent-trigger supporters "were here during spring break, pounding on doors."

The parent union had enough signatures to file the petition on the Tuesday after spring break -- two days before the scheduled information meeting.

In May, the school board accepted the petition, and the parent union got what they said they wanted: Cobian was out.

But they also got something they didn't expect. Most of the school's teachers chose to leave as well. As a school of choice, teachers must literally sign on to the plan for Weigand. Nineteen out of 21 refused to sign the commitment form, and got reassigned to other LAUSD schools instead. District rules normally prohibit more than 10 percent of teachers transferring out at one time.

"If I was such a bully-tyrant, why would so many teachers leave?" Cobian said. "I was overwhelmed. I was floored."

Some teachers have found new positions in the district. Other, less senior, teachers remain in a pool, waiting to be placed in new positions. One teacher has left the district entirely.

"I've put in 11 years," Banuelos said. "It's taken its toll on my personal life, my family life, my health. After all of that, it's a slap in the face. I'm sorry, but I'll take my talents elsewhere."

Parent union members said they feel betrayed by the Weigand teachers' decision to leave the school.

"If they really cared about these kids, then why did they leave?" mother Alicia Cardiel said through a translator.

She has a third-grader who will be attending school in August.

In late July, the district appointed Joseph Prendez as the school's new principal. Both parents and staff members were represented on the five-person panel that selected Prendez, who most recently served as coordinator at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary in Leimert Park.

Katie McGrath, L.A. Unified's instructional director for elementary, who's overseeing the school's transition, regrets the departure of so many of Weigand's teachers.

"There were a lot of good things that were going on before," she said. "We asked that faculty to stay."

Weigand will effectively be a new school next year, she said. A new teaching staff, in every sense, was hired on June 7.

"The faculty that we lost had an average of 10 years of experience," McGrath said. "The faculty coming in has an average of one year of experience, but they're well-prepared" from well-respected teaching programs.

"They've said only two teachers have four years of experience, one has six and the rest zero," Garcia said.

The district made no secret of what happened at Weigand, McGrath said.

"Every single candidate was briefed on the situation "? so they were fully aware of what they're getting into," she said. "Our new candidates see themselves as change agents and social justice-oriented teachers, and see this as an opportunity."

The new faculty also has the academic plan Cobian developed at the district's request. Banuelos said those involved in the parent-trigger movement now claim credit for the plan.

"The legacy is the plan," Cobian said. "That's what we did."

No matter what, though, things will be different when the new school year starts on Aug. 13.

"Our job is to find the silver lining around the rain cloud," McGrath said. "There's no dress rehearsal for third grade, so we need to get it right the first time."

"I was driving by the school this morning and I saw a bunch of cars there. I asked them what they were doing there, and they said they had come to put Internet in," Cardiel said through a translator. "I got in the car, screaming and crying. I was part of making that happen."